August 05, 2024

Is "Putin's Architect" Back?


Is "Putin's Architect" Back?
Putin's Palace in Gelendzhik, Krasnoyarsk Krai, designed by Lanfranco Chirillo. Ekologicheskaya Bakhta po Sebernomu Kavkazu, Dmitry Shevchenko, Wikimedia Commons.

On August 1, Sberbank appointed Lanfranco Cirillo, the designer of the infamous "Putin's Palace," as vice president of its new construction unit. Cirillo abandoned Russia seemingly for good after 20 years there, but "Putin's architect" is rebuilding ties with the country again. 

Cirillo's name can't be found in his home country's architects' union and his degree is not valid in Russia. Yet the Venetian became known for building mansions and dachas for Moscow's oligarchs in the 1990s, including for Lukoil, Gazprom, and Novatek executives. In 2014, President Vladimir Putin granted the Italian architect Russian citizenship by decree, a rare honor.

Cirillo's name appeared in Russian newspapers in 2021, after Alexey Navalny uploaded the documentary "Putin's Palace. The Story of The World's Biggest Bribe" to YouTube. The 65-year-old acknowledged he designed the neoclassical dacha, but denied it was for Putin. The architect told Meduza the 100-million-ruble ($1.2 million) mansion was for the construction firm Stroygazconsulting, owned by Ziyad Manasir. In 2013, the Jordanian businessman was among the guests at Putin's daughter's wedding to businessman Kiril Shamalov.

After the Russian government expropriated land that the Italian architect had developed and a later argument over the construction of an Olympic sailing facility, Cirillo decided to leave Russia for the UAE. But "Putin's architect" is now resuming relations with Moscow. In a statement by Sberbank, the financial institution celebrated the appointment of Cirillo to its construction unit, citing his portfolio and "great sense of style."

You Might Also Like

Baikal, not Bali
  • July 10, 2024

Baikal, not Bali

The State Duma has banned Russian deputies and senators from traveling abroad without permission.
Nationalize It
  • March 14, 2024

Nationalize It

Over the past two years, 180 private companies have been taken over by the Russian state.
Sudden Death
  • February 18, 2024

Sudden Death

Alexei Navalny’s death was entirely expected, and completely unacceptable.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955